Vortex M0110 keyboard review (Gateron Pro Retro White)
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- čas přidán 31. 10. 2023
- Skip to 9:04 for a typing demonstration.
Get it here: vortexgear.store/collections/...
Today we look at a retro keyboard inspired by an Apple icon; the Vortex M0110! Not a true 1:1 replica of the original, but instead a modern reimagining. Hope you enjoy the video! :)
Intro by Kyle Carter
Outro by Facundo Cabanne
My keyboard reviews: bit.ly/1TbOtft
My switch teardowns: bit.ly/2C1QGHz
My TOP X videos: bit.ly/2FmpZfd
My XL typing demos: bit.ly/2OoAW3w
My tutorials and featurettes: bit.ly/2OrkLUh
My unboxing videos: bit.ly/2TSrr0m
I'm Thomas and I do videos and reviews on mechanical keyboards ranging from the most sickening modern RGB gaming keyboards to vintage hardware relics, or sometimes keycaps or keyswitches ranging from Cherry MX to Alps SKCM to IBM buckling springs and anything in between.
Follow me on Twitter for updates on my keyboard videos! / chyrosran22
The practice sentence was: "Hello my name is Thomas and I'm typing on a Vorteh M0110 right now. This is a really cool little replica - it's just a shame that the programming is so godawful!" - Věda a technologie
I have an original Macintosh keyboard and I can confirm it is the most pingy keyboard ever created. Seriously, the case is like an acoustic guitar body amplifying every key stroke ping.
I know, right? It's incredible. Puts even a Pingmaster to shame!
@@Chyrosran22IIRC you once referred to either the M0110 or M0110A as the "Apple Ping Overlord" after a direct comparison to the Pingmaster. I have an M0110A but the version with Mitsumi Standard Mechanical and even that is a pingy bastard.
@@Chyrosran22Can confirm.
czcams.com/users/shorts6u9fN2zsfLk?si=ex9YHqmcCnGmkyKo
I'd put it in ensemble with a Nec APC H412 blue oval that resonates like a mad xylophone. Imagine what a nice concert😂
I've considered lining my Apple M0110 keyboard case with silicone (which would be removable) @@dacopellino
Your mockery of imperial units always makes me smile.
HHKB style arrow keys are objectively the best for 60% boards with the fn key next to a split right shift
I picked one of these up. Software is visually pretty lazy but there's a language toggle somewhere in there. Switching keys is just click the button you want to change, click the key you want below. Performance is great and the 2.4GHz keeps up with fast paced FPS gaming with no issue.
It sounded really muted and dull and the Gateron Retro White were pretty thin sounding. I ended up removing the silicone plate and case deadeners which improved acoustics dramatically but the big thing is switch choice (for me). I swapped out several switches and really like louder switches in the case. Novelkeys Cream Clickies and Owlab Neon switches are my favorite in this case. MT3 sounds great, too. The stabilizers were the best I've ever seen in any pre-built I've ever tried. Maybe I hit the stab lottery but there was no rattle. I ended up lubing them and ended up introducing some rattle on the shift key lmao. If it ain't broke...
Another thing; I added some small silicone o-rings where the screws come through on the inside of the case. This opens the gap slightly between the top and bottom case when closed but is visually closer to the original Apple side profile. The main reason for the mod? Allow actual gasket performance that the original construction smooshes out existence.
Edit: Visually I like the ANSI layout more. You can use the small backspace above enter and a 1u delete key above that.
Nice to see another retro-ish keyboard! I really like the aesthetics of the older keyboards.
For people who don't want to go through the video to get the important information:
This keyboard weighs about 1/109th of a deer.
You're all very welcome.
Noice! Now I feel like breaking out the apple mo110. Love the ping!
Great to see you Tom :D
You're so underrated
Literally one of the giants of youtube for me, like Techmoan or AVGN
Vortex does a pretty decent job with their retro keebs. I have their pcjr keyboard look-alike and it is very enjoyable.
Jeez why
Yeaaah, I love the new 'retro style' type keyboards.
just when i think there can't be any more interesting imperial weight conversion units... holy shit
Vortex also made the PC66 which is based on the IBM PCjr keyboard which I love a lot. I own both generations of the IBM PCjr keyboards including the horrific first generation and will tell you the Cherry MX Clears I got in it are divine intervention
6:35
vim users: "wrong, but continue"
Such a nice looking keyboard!
Hard not to be good looking when it is based on the original Macintosh keyboard. For all its imperfections, it was a beautiful design.
@@Robo10q I still think that AEKII was the best looking keyboard ever made.
Are you gonna do a full review of the newer K70? It just seemed so generic besides the switches, but that is your jam (and mine aswell) so I was just wondering about it, nice review though Thomas.
Also, how do I get some of the stuff for The Undying cocktail? It looked really good.
Yeah, I'll definitely review that one as well. Can't tell you exactly when though.
As for the Undying, you can probably just get it at an off-licence, right?
great video. nailed it.
I thought it wasn’t another Unix style keyboard. I’d have to add another one to my collection
Im only here for the imperial units because i can picture exactly how much it is
iirc when the Ctrl keys are empty spots in the HHKB layout, the Ctrl key is in place of Caps Lock. If the software wasn't such of a hickup, would that be problematic on your end?
I assume it wouldn't? He grew up with the XT layout as a kid, where there's only one Ctrl key that's located where Caps Lock is on modern layouts
Hi Thomas, is Vortex going to send you their Model M SSK Triple Mode for a review by chance? Unfortunately it's not QMK/VIA compatible, but it does have an on-board macro programming, and with a roomy plastic case it might be ideal for something like Clickiez or Box whites.
Man, that spacebar takes up a lot of... space.
But someone should make a keyboard with a full width spacebar :D
Does it have a format that is fully HHKB layout with VIA?
not much talk of the gateron pros here on your channel, have you reviewed another board with them or the switch series on their own?
Yeah, I did a Gat Pro yellow one a while ago.
Sweet, beer and popcorn time.
Cool but it doesn't have the delicate reverb when taping like with the Apple's one.
$250 for an Apple numpad. Totally tracks today.
lovely
It's true. We weigh light things in hamburgers and heavy things in Abrams tanks, and we measure horizontal distances in busses, heights in Empire State Buildings, volumes in swimming pools, and power in horses.
I wouldn't be too hard on Steve Jobs omitting the arrow keys. After all, this was the first computer built around windows and a mouse pointer. The bigger problem was including just one floppy drive without enough capacity to fit the operating system and even one productivity application. You were constantly a slave to the machine as it required you to insert a different disk to proceed.
That's a beauty! Too bad my wrists are so inflexible - that "sloped" design would cripple me.
We need a compilation of you saying all the cheeseburger weights
Gateron does sound great but I prefer the sound of legendary Alps SKCC switches. Something about vintage keyboards sound made me not want to go back to modern keyboards including Cherry MX
I’m definitely the same way. Love my M0110A, the ping sounds awesome!
Model F still #1!!!
Came for the keyboard, stayed for the profanity 😅
A Dutch man saying "the colonies" might mean something a wee bit different and less burger oriented
To be honest, whenever I speak English, I much more identify as British than Dutch. It really is my second home, you know.
@Chyrosran22 New York used to be at least partially Dutch. NYC used to be New Amsterdam, and several names in the area are Dutch in origin, like Harlem, so you can double claim the term colonies in a way.
No Ctrl keys? NO CTRL KEYS??!
Yes, it's absurd. I have no idea what they were thinking.
@@Chyrosran22 This frustration has become tangentially twice relevant to something I'm trying...something you'll probably find disgusting, nauseating and festerous, but maybe interesting. On a very normal keyboard, I've remapped Ctrl to be Space, and the spacebar to be Ctrl, to see if it makes lazy bad posture one-handed keyboard navigation easier. So far, it has worked - actually, I only realised on trying it that on top of making stuff like Ctrl+T and Ctrl+W easier to reach over and mash for browsing, the shortcuts for cut, copy, paste and bold are all single-finger jobbies now. So it's even lazier than I'd imagined, and it's freed up RCtrl to be some other thing, I've set it to be media_play_pause. Definitely a pain to lose muscle memory for actual typing - I suppose ideally what I want for this is a really fucked up board with an extra row below the alphanumerics for a big fuckoff fifteen-unit...Ctrlbar? Anyway the second relevance is that I'm going to have to remap jump to Ctrl in every game now
Good to know to not get the tri-mode if I ever get around to making my mac plus cased mini pc thing a reality. Now to find an appropriately hideous modern mouse that matches the two.
the lack of a control key is kinda hilarious, I guess they kept with the Apple centric-ness of the OG, what does the "code / apple option" symbol key do on windows by default?
Control obviously, or whatever you map it to
You're welcome. 🙂
Would you review the new HHKB studio?
Hmm, seems like an interesting project, although it's historically been difficult for me getting hold of HHKB's. Thanks for putting it on my radar though!
5:43 about this. I have no idea why QMK/VIA/Vial isn't more common these days. It's a must. The moment they release a keyboard with QMK they only have one source to work on and don't have to work on any programmable software since the rest is basically maintained by the community.
That's probably the very reason they don't.
QMK has terrible support for 2,4 Ghz wireless & Bluetooth. To the point that the QMK dev denied inclusion of Bluetooth driver due to license incompatibility. Keychron actually made Bluetooth work with QMK but in a very hacky way. This is why manufacturers use their own firmware for tri-mode PCBs.
Edit: Keychron implementation is so hacky the code doesn't even merged to the main branch.
@@bltzcstrnx I mean that's fine, they can just make their own forks and pay for the licensing.
@@jacob1121 no, they can't. Proprietary Bluetooth drivers are not allowed to merge with GNU GPL that QMK have. There's no paying to get around that unless all the people who have written the current QMK version agree to license it under non GNU GPL.
typing sounds nice but aesthetically no, it's one large probably empty grotesque box. Tall enough to soon exhaust wrists and arms. Colors are fine similar to other "retro" keyboards. I like a lot the layout regardless of the lack of separate arrow keys. I don't think I 'II ever use qmk/via software since there are other third party applications with friendly interface for remapping in windows and linux. If I had to choose, I would certainly prefer one HHKB instead.
Putting PCjr-retro keycaps on a Apple-retro keyboard might be seen as a bit of an abomination though ...
I really was expecting a frying session when i saw the software. Note to people that sends Thomas a keyboard for review: make your configuring software English or get an Waning worthy lecture. 😅
It's in there. It comes just like he showed out of the box. You have to find some kind of toggle in the menu on the left. Total pain but once you do it stays that way. Changing keys is also super easy. Click key, click the one you want the the layout below it.
So basically what Eiji Wada's HHKB did successfully through imitating M0110 during the 90s.
The HHKB Studio will be my endgame keyboard - no further need for a Magic Trackpad!
EDIT: Oh, you mentioned the HHKB further into the video. xD
it being so similar to an hhkb and having capslock is fucking weird
Oh my god the horror, that humongous line in that backspace key, hurts my eyes. Instant deal-breaker.
At the end must say, I do like the typing sound. But man that backspace key is the Cthulhu of backspace keys. Plus the diamond arrangement for arrow keys: two undefeatable deal-breakers. Also not a fan of the almost invisible light green for the F key lettering. Yep, that amounts to three deal-breakers.
Honestly I love it
@@DAAI741Be honest, you are the mother then
a simple beige dye sub set that won’t have those issues costs like 20 bucks
I don't like the print on the (alternate) F keys either, and I really wonder why they are there. I mean, I know that for F1 I have to press the Fn key and the 1 key. Now, for arrow keys, page up/page down.... Oh yeah, and no control key. That would be my instant deal breaker. And the height. And the look. The Apple keys. The shortened shifts. Um...not for me :P
arrow keys under Fn layer should be reprogrammable
If I want a good modern Mac keyboard I think I'll just buy one of the Matias keyboards.
Fuck the current keyboard and mouse offered by Apple, complete nightmare for a desktop, but it's perfectly fine for a laptop.
Do you know enough chemistry to cook methamphetamine?
Of course. What self-respecting chemist doesn't?
The M0110 was personally designed by Steve Jobs.
Diamond arrow keys are nice
I'm a heavy arrow keys and number pad Windows®️ user, this keyboard is not for me.
First
If keyboard has no ctrl key, it's useless for me.
Definitely not my digs as I need the arrows and numpad, but I'm sure the Taeha Typeses of the world will love it.
Ok, I'm now going to ask, what the heck is the problem you have with us here in America? The "joke," such as it is, has gotten well and truly ancient.
I would much rather use a 12€ Dell keyboard with a standard layout.. I like my keyboard to have the keys I need..
Chosing Gateron pro white is a weird choice since it's one of the worse sounding budget linears out there. I mean come on, Gateron Milky Red and Yellow are there and they sound much nicer.
The Via compatibility problem is that Chinese love RGB like on those "gaming brand" keyboard and to be honest, Via isn't the brightest thing when it comes to RGB led control. There are also people said that a tri-mode Via compatible pcb is much more expensive to make than a non Via compatible and you know Chinese, they cut where they can, so...
60% is just for morons who haven't discovered the glory of the modern compact 75% layout which gives you a TKL functionality in a much neater package, and only lengthens and widens the keyboard by 1u in each direction with zero wasted space.
I get it if you really need the tiniest keyboard for travel, but for deskspace reasons you have to ask yourself why are you using a desk the size of a tea tray?
60s aren't great for me but for programming many find them quite usable. Sometimes it's nice to just have something at its "bare essentials" for your needs. 75s are just hideous, deformed, cramped TKLs
Come on, just learn chinese to read instruction manual. How hard can it be? 😆